July 26, 2018: Fire Threatens A Drier World - Investigators Threatened the Trump Organization

 

7/26/18: As scientists have been predicting, with the planet warming, forests will dry out. Wildfires will be a spreading problem. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that 2018 is on pace to be the fourth hottest year on record. 

 

Like burning up Delaware, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. 

If you care to look you can see danger signs round the world. Several active fires are spreading above the Arctic Circle, highly unusual at this time of year. Greece has just been swept by massive wildfires. At least 81 lives were lost. Scientists warn that a drought that grips much of Australia may be the worst in 800 years. Closer to home, blazes near Yosemite National Park have forced tourists to evacuate as smoke hangs over the valley like a shroud.

 

This summer, views like this in Yosemite NP are blanketed in gray haze.

The National Interagency Fire Center sums up a dangerous situation across the U.S., in 2018: 

Ninety large fires have burned nearly one million acres in 14 states. Large fire activity is reported in every Geographic Area, except Eastern Area, which is very unusual for July [emphasis added, here and below]. Hot and dry weather conditions in several states caused extreme fire behavior on large fires in California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. Residents in many towns across the West have been evacuated from their homes.

 

With the fire season opening earlier, and certain to last longer, the U.S. could be in for a record burn. A million charred acres equals 1,563 square miles, equivalent to setting fire to the entire land area of Delaware. Last year, the NOAA notes, 9,781,062 acres went up in smoke and ash. That would be 15,283 square miles, equal to the land area of New Jersey and Massachusetts. 

This year may be worse.

 

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IN OTHER NEWS, the Wall Street Journal reports that Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has been served a subpoena by federal investigators. Weisselberg was mentioned on the Cohen tape as someone involved in potentially illegal payoffs during the 2016 campaign. (See: 7/25/18.) 

NBC reporter Katy Tur highlights the danger to the president in a tweet: “Former Trump org employee to me: ‘Alan [sic] knows where all financial bodies are buried within the Trump organization.” Weisselberg not only knows where the bodies are buried, he helped bury them.

March 30, 2019: Alaska Warming Fast Says NOAA - Trump Says Who?

 

3/30/19: Weekend temperatures in parts of Alaska are 50° above normal. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the state is the “fastest-warming” part of our country. On March 19, the town of Klawock reported the earliest 70° temperature ever recorded in the state. 

See if you can spot a trend: 

 

A search of Trump’s Twitter feed shows that only once has he ever cited the NOAA in a tweet. That was to show pictures of how large Hurricane Florence was. By comparison, he has discounted climate change/global warming dozens of times, typically mistaking weather for climate. For example, we had this on February 18, 2015: “Among the lowest temperatures EVER in much of the United States. Ice caps at record size. Changed name from GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE.”

 

Any fool could check NASA records and discover that, globally, for the entire year, 2015 was the second hottest ever, with 2016 hottest, 2017 third and 2018 fourth. You could look up stories about the tremendous decline in ice in the Arctic Ocean. You could check NASA records for the last sixty years, noting significant ice losses in the Antarctic. Assuming you weren’t a fool yourself, you wouldn’t be fooled by Trump and the right-wingers who like to point to one NASA report that showed limited ice gains in parts of the Antarctic in 2015.

August 15, 2019: July Is Hottest Month in Recorded History

 

8/15/19: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a government agency which Trump and his fans have probably never heard of, makes it official. July was the hottest month, globally, in history. 

The five hottest July’s have been the last five years. In just twenty-four hours, on July 31, an estimated 11 billion tons of ice melted in Greenland. 

The evidence of manmade climate change continues to accumulate. Only the professional nitwits ignore it. (See: 8/16/19.)

Hottest month in recorded history.

 

May 4, 2021: Donald Trump or a Head of Cabbage?

 

5/4/21: Speaking of fools: How about all those climate deniers! Like Donald J. Trump, his lard ass self. 

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, released its “new normals” report today. Data from thirty-year segments are analyzed, with this new report covering the years 1991-2020.  Compared to the last report, covering 1981 to 2010, we learn that much of the country is hotter by at least 1.25 degrees compared to the twentieth century average. 

Most of the country is significantly wetter, with particularly heavy rains in the Midwest. This is just as scientist predicted. Warmer temperatures = more evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. More water vapor in the atmosphere = greater precipitation = more flooding events = more torrential rains during hurricanes.

 

Trump? He still thinks climate change is “Fake News,” and still believes he won the popular vote in two elections. 

He remains as uninformed as ever – no more likely to read than a puppy – with no more grasp of the science than a head of cabbage.